Everything In Its Place

You have to get creative with some of your storage in a small place. I have two of those nifty jewelry hangers, but they were in my closet where I never remembered to look and they were so full it was difficult to tell what I had anymore.

The shades in the trailer were so age stained and most didn’t even work so I took all of them out. Until just recently I had tacked up a piece of lace over my bathroom window, but decided that would make a prettier place to display my necklaces so I would see them and actually wear them.

I can also use the screen for some of my earrings that don’t require backs that won’t fit on my earring holder. The chocolate tin holds my stud earrings. The silver jewelry box has rings and necklace/earring sets. The biscuit tin treasure box is for bangles. So now the jewelry hangers in the closet are just for brooches and bracelets.

Now that I can just about see everything, I have pretty much cut myself off unless I get rid of something in exchange. There were at least a dozen necklaces that I had completely forgotten I had. I love bein’ able to see everything where it’s easy to choose each day.

XOXO,

Lochy

 

Support my art on Patreon. ❤

 

A Place for Everything

When you are full-time trailer livin’, you have to figure out pretty quick that you can’t have everything. You start saving things only that have some meaning or inspire and so you end up with a more meaningful inspired living space.

People with houses go to the Container Store, but people with trailers go to The Dollar Tree. Those barely bigger than a shoebox containers are perfect for organizing your storage bins.

While it looks like they take up a lot of space, they actually give me more space by allowing full use of the vertical area. The top shelf doesn’t have room for bins, but makes for easy stacking of shorts, pedal pushers (I’ve always preferred that term over capris), and jeans. The bottom shelf pre-storage containers was a hot mess. Most of it ended up on my bed before I found what I was lookin’ for and then sometimes would be unceremoniously shoved back in quickly before I headed out the door. Now I have a bin for camisoles, tank tops, t-shirts, long sleeved tees (no print), and long sleeved tees (with a print). Finding what I need is a snap. Putting stuff away is a breeze. The organized tidiness of it is comforting.

I recommend measuring the interior of your cabinets keeping in mind what you want to store there. Limited space helps keep you from buyin’ that top that’s on sale that you will never wear. But keeping that space organized will allow for more than just the bare necessities. You might end up buyin’ that really cute top that isn’t on sale, but stays in regular rotation because you don’t buy “eh maybe” clothes anymore and because you’ve passed up the last 15 mediocre sale shirts you are still saving money.

So while you can’t have everything, you can have it all (at least all that you REALLY want). Except for books. I haven’t figured out how to keep all of my books. Maybe I need another trailer for my library…

XOXO,

Lochy

 

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Shift

I’ve decided to shift the focus slightly from bein’ a blog just about trailer livin’ to bein’ about living simply to achieve larger goals. It will still incorporate a lot about the Rocketship, but it will be a bit expanded on other topics as well. My dream is to be an artist and I am livin’ the dream! I’m livin’ the dream at least part-time.

My shop, The Zen Gypsy, is open Thursday-Sunday, I do the household chores and errand runnin’ on Wednesday, which leaves Monday and Tuesday as dedicated art days. For me right now this is about as perfect as it can get.

The shop covers the most basic of expenses, the electric bill. I sold my car so I don’t have to pay insurance, gas, or repairs on that. I live on the same property as my mom so we share the one vehicle which I use once a month to go to art meetings and seldom beyond that unless I go somewhere with her.

My art is currently paying for art supplies and my gas to get to my monthly art meetings all thanks to my patrons on Patreon, which is like an online tip jar. I am really excited about the return to patron supported art. It allows artists to actually work on projects they are passionate about as opposed to cranking out client funded works. My passion project is a series of fantasy graphic novels. Because I have patrons helping me, I can develop my art to a better starting place than if I felt like I had to hurry up and create a book to sell. As a result, I feel I am so much more motivated and I can see leaps in my skill level (now if I could just get my speed up!). I’ve also been writing out the story novel style so I have a defined direction and don’t write myself into a corner. Please check out my Patreon. I have 95% of my artwork available for all to view for free. If you have any questions about how it works, feel free to ask. ❤

XOXO,

Loch

The Zen Gypsy

The Zen Gypsy in Canton, Texas

The first year after teaching I spent livin’ in my Silver Streak and gettin’ my shop up and runnin’ here in Canton, Texas just five minutes from the world’s largest flea market. First I had a tiny trailer and now a tiny shop with tiny things. Small livin’ is the way to go!

The shop needed a LOT of work, not unlike the Rocketship. The outside was white with black trim and I painted it turquoise with white trim, had some more windows put in to brighten it up inside, and had some porch posts put on the front. Inside it was yield sign yellow with bright orange trim. I wanted it yellow inside, but more of a buttery toned down yellow. Painted the walls a more welcoming yellow and the trim white. The concrete floor I painted brown and stenciled. I put some copper glitter in the floor paint to have a nice little shimmer.

The Zen Gypsy and my Rocketship are on a 3 acre property shared with my mom’s trailer and her shop: The Gypsy Chicks, a Kenskill trailer that is full of vintage goodies, and a vintage potting shed. We sell all manner of vintage finds. Mom tends more towards shabby chic, architectural, and primitives; where I have have more eclectic and kitschy tastes.

Gettin’ the shops up and runnin’ took the entire first year of my “retirement” from teaching. We’re finally at a point where we’re open four days a week: Thursday-Sunday. I have a mini-art studio in the back of my mini shop. This July will be a full two years we’ve been open and a year since I’ve been able to begin pursuing art on Monday and Tuesday. More about that next time!

XOXO,

Loch

 

Happy Summer!

I made it through another year teachin’ in South Dallas. Yay! Time for a little relaxin’ right about here:

Nice, huh? Though it doesn’t show the tomatoes, peppers, or figs that are along the fence now.

Also this month, that student loan that felt neverending has ended. I made my final payment last Friday. Livin’ in the Rocketship has really allowed me to pay that off fast. Now I can make up for lost time on my retirement savings. Although… I’m kind of lookin’ for another trailer, a super tiny one, maybe about the size of the old Starlette. My mom found a really little one that I liked, but the man sold it before she could get over there. It was something like this: Tiny Trailer. I think it would be a good size for a little traveling art studio, don’t you?

XOXOX,

Loch

Seed Harvesting

Despite being in the 70’s well into December, the morning glories were starting to look a little brown. Time to say farewell until next year.

Morning Glories

Despite the leaves turning brown, they were still bloomin’ their heads off. I have thousands of seed pods which I have been harvesting as soon as they are ready.

Morning Glory Doorway

The above picture gives you an idea of how I had them attached to the awning bar. The vines were all down the East side of the Rocket except where the door is as you can see. My neighbor was afraid I was going to get stuck inside the way they were growing over the top like that. Haha!

Mom and me in the Morning Glories

When it was green, it was really green! Last Sunday I cut them off about 2 feet from the fence. I have a blanket of vines against the Rocket now. I did that hopin’ they would hurry up and dry out so I can finish gettin’ the seeds. Those crazy things are STILL blooming a week later! They are mostly brown now though. It’s supposed to get close to freezing tonight. Maybe that will finish them off. If you’re on my Christmas card list, don’t be surprised if you get a baggie with little black seeds. >_<

XOXOX,

Loch

 

Milk Crates

So I was on Pinterest (as usual of late) and found this great idea for small area composting:

I didn’t take the above picture, that was the one I pinned, though mine looks almost exactly the same. I have 2 black crates and 1 red. I put it together today minus the lid.

With the massive growth of the morning glories, I have been wondering just how much vegetable gardening I could do in this little space. It is approximately 40’X25′ not subtracting the area taken up by the Rocketship. Still, I think with vertical gardening and fruit trees in pots I could have some serious produce. My only concern is overwintering the fruit trees. I have 2 figs, a lemon, lime, orange, and a grapefruit tree. I’ll have to see if I can find something that will work on Pinterest.

If you haven’t been yet check out my pins and start some boards of your own. I have a board on gardening, travel trailer living, cooking, travel, oh just lots of stuff! Have fun!

XOXOX,

Loch

A Couple of Ideas

3 weeks ago. They are even more solid now.

It’s gettin’ up into the 100’s here in Texas and as they say, necessity is the mother of invention. I got a good suggestion from Rebecca in my comments about my canopy snappin’ and I was thinkin’ of doin’ something very similar to her suggestion. My awning frame on the Silver Streak is still intact despite the canvas bein’ in shreds. Well, I don’t know this for 100% certainty as I’ve never let it out, but it looks pretty ratty even in the rolled up position. Anyway, I have one of two options.

Step one for both is the same: roll the awning out, cut the canvas off, and put the frame back in the upright position.

For Option One I use the bar on the awning to tie one edge of a tarp and tie the other edge to the fence. This is the quick fix and gives a solid shade. My only concern is the tarps fillin’ with water and weighin’ down the awning, though I think they would split before the bar bent. Things were made better back in the day.

Option Two involves zigzagging twine from the awning bar on the trailer to the fence and let the morning glories grow up and create a natural shade canopy. I wouldn’t have much considered this one right after the collapse, but 20 days later and my morning glories are growin’ like crazy! You can’t tell they even mowed any down. The fence is almost solid and there are a lot of 2-3′ tendrils reachin’ out for somethin’ to grab onto. This option is much cheaper. I already have some twine, though probably not enough to go all the way down. Guess it’s good I took the broken frame to scrap. I made enough to buy a $2 roll of twine. XD

I’m goin’ with Option Two for now. It’s cheaper, probably more secure, and hopefully much more attractive. I’ll take pictures when it’s all done!

XOXOX,

Loch

Snap!

I had taken some pictures a week ago and only just now getting them uploaded. Above is the pretty green awning my dad bought me. It was a devil to put up by myself, but oh so nice once I had. There’s a nice shady spot where I would read or nap while listening to my fountain and wind chimes. I bought a fig tree on sale that had two little trees in it. You can see I split them and put them into different pots there.

There were a few remaining morning glories growing along the fence. I meant to blog a while back about how the guys at the park weedwacked over half. They carefully avoided them the first 3-4 times they did the weedeating, but they must have gotten a new guy that didn’t know that my pebbles around each little vine meant to avoid that area. The park manager was VERY nice about the whole thing. She took the main landscaping guy out there immediately and showed him what happened and told him to explain it to all of his guys so that it wouldn’t happen again.

So the few that were left have been doing pretty well. The fence would have been otherwise covered, but that’s okay. I filled in with mandevilla and jasmine in the bare spots. They don’t grown even half as fast though. I put twine from the top of the fence to the awning to create a screen. There was a huge difference from this picture taken a week ago and this morning. They were almost solid.

And today it was a hot one! It was 95 outside and my poor AC was only keepin’ it at 90 inside.  I was usin’ the original topside AC unit because the window unit that was cut in was leaking water into my trunk and I didn’t want it to rot out the wood. The original unit isn’t the best. It’s kind of like sitting in a car in the Texas summer out in the full sun with the AC on low. It just isn’t gonna get that cool. I was telling my mom how nice it was to have that awning because it kept a lot of morning sun off the trailer and kept the concrete shaded so it wasn’t storing a lot of heat up all day.

Then it started raining and after 30 minutes of hard rain…

Yeah…

It snapped like a twig in several places AND the tarp split. Couldn’t have been one or the other. Not lookin’ forward to how hot it’s gonna be tomorrow when I’m trying to dismantle it.

Anyone have an idea for what I can do to shade that side of the rocketship? It is the East side. I get sun from 9:30AM-3:30PM.

XOXOX,

Loch

The Proof

I probably shouldn’t let this secret out… If everyone knew how cheaply they could live in an RV/travel trailer, they might all sell their homes, the demand for RV spots would be higher and so would the price. Luckily, I just have 3 people that read my blog. XD

The only reason May electric was so high (yes, high) was that I had strep throat and didn’t realize I had a fever. I thought it was gettin’ really hot already and turned on my A/C for 3 days. It’s too bad too because I was tryin’ to beat April’s low of $16.37. I was wantin’ to see if I could have a $15.00 electric bill. Oh well, I can’t complain when rent and electric together are under $300.

In other good news, my first full year teaching in Dallas is over. YAY! It was a rough year, but no where near as difficult as Midway (middle school + mid year + 1st year teaching = nightmare).  I have already signed my contract for next year and just have one or two days to go in next week to finish up my classroom and paint my chalkboards with whiteboard paint and then I will be out for the summer! I don’t expect to see many more electric bills that low since it can get pretty hot in Texas and I have no intention of sittin’ around sweatin’ since I have a job.

Hope everyone else’s summer is startin’ off as fine as mine.

XOXOX,

Loch